Shadow School Ch. 08

"It's Devin, right?" Melanie's eyes widened. She was one of the seven. The one Gavin had chosen instead of Melanie.

"I know you," the girl said weakly, her eyes straining as she looked Melanie over.

"I'm one of the Shacrow Seven... I'm in your Circle. Melanie. Melanie Carter?"

"The Roanoke girl."

Melanie nodded.

"Well, damn."

Melanie blinked. She didn't know what she expected the girl to say next but that wasn't it. "Sorry?"

"So this is an attack on the school then. Or a very sick and twisted hazing ritual."

Melanie listened to the words with shock, coming to the same conclusion. Why else would another one of the seven be in the cell with her. Surely it wasn't a coincidence. "Are you hurt?"

"No." Devin rubbed at her bare arm as if she were cold. "Just tired, hungry, and drugged. I ran from those bastards for a few hours before they finally caught me. Tranquilizer dart to the shoulder. Woke up I their lab and they put be right back under." She tried to sit up. "Been here for two days with no food."

Melanie gulped. Two days... "They didn't bring you food or water?"

Devin shook her head. "It rained this morning... There's a leak in the middle of the room."

Well that was why the floor was wet, but considering they were a basement, there was no telling what the water filtered through to get down here. And devil had drank it? Eww.

Melanie studied Devin. No way was she drinking the water. With no food for a couple of days a person could be tired but not as weak as Devin seemed to be. She must have ingested something.

Not that she'd point that out in the girl's state.

Melanie turned back to the lock. The only way to get out of this situation was to get out of this room. "What number did you say you stopped at?"

Devin gave the lock and evil look. "Twelve nine seventy-eight. I did the math... Forty combinations a minute is still two thousand five hundred minutes; divided by sixty minutes, we're looking at over forty hours of continuous turning. Factor in breaks, sleep, and general tiredness... It'll two more days at least." The girl put her head in her hands.

Melanie pursed her lips. "We'll work in shifts. Can you do that?" The girl looked like she was about to fall over.

Devin nodded.

Melanie turned back to the lock. "You rest now. I feel okay to do this for a while." She heard the girl lay back down as she turned the blue plastic.

12978, pull... 12979, pull... 12980, pull...

***

Kristie lounged on her father's sofa, a Rubik's cube dancing between her hands as she blindly twisted the thing into an even bigger mess. She'd given up trying to figure out how to line up the colors an hour ago.

One thing was for sure; she wasn't keen on house arrest.

She looked up at the hulking man standing at the window of her living room. "Shouldn't you be a little more stealthy? Like, hiding so whatever's out there can't see you until it's too late?"

The honey-skinned man, Jonas, glanced her way before crossing his arms and looking back out at the afternoon light.

"If one of us stands at the window, there is no guessing how many others wait inside," Eric explained. Daman's son stood at the kitchen archway, propped up against the frame in a relaxed posture that lied about his current alertness. The two men had shown up around one o'clock, invited themselves in, and told Kristie that she was not to leave the house under any circumstances.

That had been over three hours ago.

It wouldn't have been so bad if she could talk at least one of the guys into playing cards or something. She was bored; she couldn't turn the TV on because it would make noise, and solitaire had gotten old pretty quick.

"How much longer?" she asked.

"Daman will leave his location at twilight. When he gets here it will be easier to watch the premises."

"And what are you guarding me from exactly?"

"That's classified," Jonas said for the hundredth time.

"No, that's bullshit that's what that is. How the Hell and I supposed to run from "classified" if "classified" happens to take you two out?

"Kris-"

"You know what I think?" she interrupted Eric's attempt to calm her, "I think it's werewolves or some shit like that. I mean, they're your mortal enemy in legends... and those pictures, those hieroglyphs on the-"

"Kris!" Eric said, raising his voice to her for the first time since she met the half-vamp. "You wanna know what's going on?" When she didn't answer he asked again, "Do you?"

"Yeah."

"Well so do we."

Okay... Not what she expected.

Eric came in and sat in the chair opposite the sofa where Kristie was splayed. "Two girls from the Circle were abducted within the last four days. Scents tell us it's wolfen but we don't know which pack let alone which clan. All we know is it's an outsider hit on the school and they're targeting you and the other chosen."

"Why us?"

Eric pursed his lips. The inner debate over what to tell her was written all over his face. "Look... You'll learn this soon anyway. You and the others are special; the school needs you. And right now, while you're not on school grounds, you're more vulnerable. It's never been a problem because everything involving you is kept secret; even the CIA or FBI would have a hard time figuring out where you attend college. So, the only explanation is a problem we haven't had at the school in over a hundred years."

"Yeah?" she asked. "What's that."

"A leak," Jonas said, still not turning from the window.

"What like one of the girls?"

"No. It could have come from anywhere but as for you and the other freshman, only the President's office and the other Heads know where you are."

"Well let's be honest guys, if I wanted to, I could shout from the top of the hills that I got accepted into a vampire academy... One of the other girls could have done the same." Or any of the students.

"Ah, but two girls were abducted. Not one. Someone had to know where both lived, which is classified, even from other students." Eric crossed his arms over his chest. "And just a fair warning, were you to have been the leak, you would have been dead three days ago."

"Daman couldn't have read my mind until last night."

Eric's smile was hard. "He wouldn't have had too. Others have the ability."

He glanced at Jonas. So did she. She looked back at Eric, watching for any sign of silent communication as he turned his eyes back to her. Her own eyes narrowed.

Eric could read minds, a gift from his father. Was Jonas the child of a vampire as well? She guessed she didn't think about it - the brute was so big and beefy where most all the vampires were toned and slender. Did he and others watch her while she was off campus? Listen to her thoughts to track her every move?

Hey Jonas, she thought.

When he didn't respond, she tried again. Joooonassss.

She thought she might've seen a muscle tick under his jaw.

Jonas, Jonas, bo Bonus, banana-fanna fo Fonas-

"Enough!" The big guy turned and looked at her. "No distractions." It was a low order, one from a man who could squash her like a bug.

Eric snorted. "Yeah but he'd be dead before midnight." It was an answer to her thought.

Too intrigued to care that both guys in the room could hear what she was thinking, Kristie said, "Really?"

Vampire Jr. stood and gave her a wry smile. "No one messes with one of the Circle unless they want to die at the hands of the Head who chose her."

He headed back for the kitchen. "And by the way, dhamphir is the proper term for my hybridity."

Kristie blushed a little at that. Her smart mouth often got her in trouble but she could at least filter what she said. Her thoughts, however, were completely uncensored and were an open book to Eric and Jonas. And... whoever else was out there listening in. Great.

As Eric turned to go farther into the kitchen, she thought loudly, can we order pizza?

"No."

***

Cameron woke to the taste of metal in her mouth. Blood, she realized, once her senses honed in on the flavor. Gasping, tried to sit up, heart beating frantically, but strong arms wrapped around her, a very warm body fitting itself against her.

"Shhh." Elias whispered in her ear. "You will be okay. You are safe. Calm."

Her mind immediately reacted, her body instantly switching from panic mode to relaxed. She slumped against the vampire holding her, her hand coming to rest over his heart. His beating heart.

It was Elias' blood in her mouth. And he was using it to quell her panic.

Mind gathering momentum, she remembered the pleasure she experienced beneath Elias, and then... nothing.

"You passed out." Elias breathed the words into Cameron's hair. "My fault," he said, holding her to him for a few moments before releasing her to lay against the pillows, stretching her out beside him so he could look down at her. He stroked the skin above her eyebrows with his thumb, letting his fingers trail down her face to her neck, where he'd bitten her. He frowned at her lack of reaction.

"Your thoughts, Cameron... Your thoughts are like none other. Hundreds of years and never has anyone reacted to me and my kind the way you do. None but one has even come close... And she has been dead for over five hundred years." He closed his eyes and breathed, "You are a memory coming back to haunt me."

At his words, Cameron did react. She haunted him?

Elias nuzzled her cheek and whispered, "Je vous protégera, même à partir de moi-même."

There was something sexy about him speaking to her in French, but even the words of comfort didn't take the edge off her thoughts. He had drained her. A lot. And she couldn't even get mad about it.

"You fed me some of your blood?" she asked. The vampire nodded. Eyes widening, she wondered if she would turn into a vampire now... or if it would do something to the baby.

Elias looked pensive. "You would have to be fed much, much more from an immortal and they would have to be willing to Make you. I would not do such a thing in your state. I gave you a very small amount to help you heal from blood-loss..."

His words trailed off and he sighed. "You've been plunged into my world too quickly. Every moment you do not react with shock or horror I wonder if you are momentarily stunned." He searched her eyes. "I seem to grow more and more apprehensive... the anticipation of an outburst just on the horizon.

"But while I have you in a calm state of mind... The child..."

Cameron's eyes widened but the thumping of her heart she would have expected never manifested.

"Offspring of immortals can survive just as any normal baby would inside a womb... But blood... blood of their father..." Elias said gently, "As they grow, if fed immortal blood, they develop more of that immortal's power. More scientifically, the diet awakens immortal elements in their genetic code." He brushed at her hair, his green eyes never leaving hers, but he said no more.

Cameron was sure that had she heard this while not under Elias' control she would have finally panicked as Elias expected. She had only just learned she was pregnant and now she was finding out the baby wouldn't mind if she drank Elias' blood every now and then.

But she minded!

Eww.

Elias didn't grin at her reaction; to him, she may be rejecting his very way of life. He simply watched and listened in on her every thought and feeling.

Cameron finally saw the downside to having a lover that could read her thoughts. She really didn't want to hurt or insult him, but... blood? She really didn't like dealing with it. Not that she fainted at seeing it but her reaction to it was enough to make her stay away from blood drives. In third grade, a kid in her class fell hard on one of the playground surfaces and skinned his leg from knee to ankle. She'd thrown up at the sight, as much as it mortified her.

Elias still didn't speak to her. Instead, he scooted lower down on the bed and rest his head on her chest, his hand caressing the skin around her navel.

Cameron realized she would have to face what she hadn't yet considered: she carried an immortal's child. She would have to be a good mother to that child and give it everything it needed to survive. If his or her father's blood was something that would ultimately help them in their adult life, when they dealt with others of their kind or things even more dangerous, how would she feel twenty years from now when she wished she could do something to protect them more?

Would she curse her younger self for being so squeamish? Would she mourn the chance to make her child stronger? And Elias... He would want the child to be powerful...

"Cameron..."

"Shh," she said, wanting to think more on what she'd gotten herself in to. She brushed her fingers through his hair, the soft blonde curls dry and chaotic but soft against her skin. Her other hand found its way to his on her abdomen and she held his palm just over where their child was growing even now.

She would be a vessel to this immortal's child. She would do everything she could to insure its safety and protection, even after it left her body and took its first breath , first steps. And she would do everything she could to prepare her son or daughter for a world more dangerous than she ever considered.

Elias raised his head to look at her and she returned his stare with one of her own.

So.

Blood.

*****

Thank you so much for keeping up with this series! I believe if we keep going I may just have to turn this into a book, in which case I will continue to post rough drafts to this site for the wonderful feedback you all have given me. Stay tuned for the next chapter! You won't have to wait as long.

As always, please take a second to vote and/or drop me a comment letting me know what you think. I hope you liked chapter 8! On to chapter 9...